November 2002

.380 Pistols: Beretta’s Cheetah Wins Small-Gun Showdown

This cat was as fast and vicious as its namesake, and we liked it better than Walther’s PPK/S-1, the Bersa Thunder, and the North American Arms Guardian.

Beretta’s Cheetah 84LS is a nice package of
ûshooting comfort and small packing size. Of
ûthe pistols in this test, it’s our pick.

Smaller guns have always had a certain appeal. In some cases it was just the aspect of miniaturization that captures our imagination. In other cases it was the reassurance of a highly concealable weapon. One niche of such guns were semi-auto .380s, which have long been popular sidearms because of their flat, short footprint and sufficient, if not outstanding, power.

We recently tested a few full-capacity semi-automatic pistols chambered for the .380 Auto, also referred to as 9mm Kurz (“short” in English), or 9mm Browning Short in Europe. While the .380 Auto was a much better choice for self-defense than other little-gun cartridges, it still lags noticeably behind the more popular…

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